


Chase

by TaeStarr



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:09:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27443917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaeStarr/pseuds/TaeStarr
Summary: Louie, per usual, has gotten the triplets into a load of trouble.
Relationships: Dewey Duck & Huey Duck & Louie Duck
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41





	Chase

**Author's Note:**

> I've finally found some inspiration to write again (I promise Rebel will be finished! And maybe that Unfinished Business story too!), but while I was looking through my hard drive I found a few old stories that never saw the light of day. I had an idea for an Uncharted-esque story where the triplets are up against a well-financed and well-armed operation to uncover some legendary treasure (I forget which), which just happens to be the legend Scrooge, Donald, and Della were investigating when they all disappeared when the triplets were infants some 25 years earlier. The document where I mapped the all the story beats is long gone, but I do have this short little excerpt, which was intended to be the opening chapter - an in medias res sorta thing that I'd get back to after a few chapters. 
> 
> Anyway, don't expect anything further from this, but I hope you enjoy this short little ditty.

Louie put all the weight he possibly could on the gas pedal, praying that it would somehow make the jeep go faster. His head was low, so that he was looking out the windshield through the space between the horn and the top of the steering wheel. His mouth was just inches from the center of the steering column; if, god forbid, he hit something, the airbag would probably push his beak through his face and out the back of his head.

Fortunately, he probably didn’t have to worry about that. The only real obstacle in the flat, expansive sands of the Nevada deserts were low-lying shrubs that the jeep easily flattened. Unfortunately, he did have to worry about pursuers. A lot of them.

“Louie, who _are_ these guys?” Dewey inquired, his voice tinged with worry. He and Huey stayed very low in the back seats of the jeep.

 _“Not now,”_ Louie spat back with a little more venom than he intended. Huey stood up slightly and peeked out the rear window. With a split-second glance, he counted at least half a dozen other off-road vehicles in hot pursuit, throwing out massive clouds of dust in their wake. Before he could get a more accurate count, a bullet ricocheted off the back of the jeep. Huey cursed and hit the deck.

“What the hell do you mean, _‘not now’?_ ” Huey asked indignantly.

“Seriously Louie, if we’re about to die, I’d at least like to know why,” Dewey added.

“Can’t we talk about this later? I’m kinda busy here!” Louie replied, giving a curt gesture to the steering wheel in front of him.

“We’re _one_ well-aimed shot away from there _not being_ a later!” Huey yelled. As if to emphasize Huey’s point, a bullet shattered the rear window of the jeep and implanted itself into the glove box in front of the passenger seat. The three ducks screamed. Startled, Louie jerked the steering wheel hard to the left before jerking hard to the right to correct their trajectory. Huey and Dewey were thrown around violently in the back seats.

“Louie, what the _hell_ did you get us into?” Dewey screamed, rubbing his head.

Louie anxiously chewed on his lower beak before letting out a loud and rough exhale. Another bullet impacted somewhere on the outer frame of the jeep.

“I, uh… I might have gone to Delaney for some help with our mission,” Louie admitted nasally.

“You did _what?!_ ” Huey and Dewey exclaimed simultaneously.

“That’s, uh… That’s not the worst of it. This is one of his vehicles…” Louie continued, his voice trailing off.

“You stole a car from the man that _owns_ Las Vegas?” Huey shrieked, sounding ready to fly into one of his signature bouts of rage.

“I should kill you myself!” Dewey yelled, “Trust me, I’d make it a lot more pleasant than they will when they catch us!”

“Shut up and let me drive!” Louie screamed back.

“How do we keep falling for this?” Huey asked, turning to Dewey. “Louie always has these grand schemes all schemed out, promising us untold riches, but the riches seem to only hold us over until the next insane misadventure. And _without fail_ , he always pisses off some warlord or drug kingpin, or awakens some ancient curse, putting us in situations like _this_ where the only reason we get out alive is dumb luck!”

“That’s the spirit, Huey!” Louie said with a laugh bordering on maniacal. “We’re gonna get out of this alive!”

“How the hell is _that_ what you took away from what I just said?” Huey spat.

“Look, we needed resources! Money! Transportation! There’s no way we could do this without outside help!” Louie explained defensively.

“So you went to _Delaney?_ ” Dewey asked, incredulous.

“He could have provided us with everything we need! This is about so much more than treasure! You both know that! We could finally figure out what happened to mom, _and_ to our uncles!” Louie explained, growing exasperated. Another bullet buried itself in the frame of the jeep with a loud _thunk_.

“What did you do to make it all fall apart? Why does he want you – and, by extension, us – dead?” Huey asked.

“He heard about the possibility of treasure and tried to push me out. I promised him the lion’s share of the spoils, but he still didn’t want me involved. I couldn’t let that happen. You understand, right? This is about family, it runs so much deeper than he could ever understand.”

“So you stole one of his cars? How does that help us? What, pray tell, was the logic behind that?” Huey asked these questions rapid fire, the rage once again growing in his voice.

“I guess Louie thought that the quickest way to find out what happened to our family is for us to ask them ourselves in the afterlife,” Dewey said acerbically.

“Look, I’m sorry I got us into this mess, but…” Louie began before something to his right caught his attention. “Holy _shit!_ ”

Smoke was pouring out of the glove box in front of the passenger seat. Louie reached over and pulled on the latch, causing the glove box to drop open. Flames began to shoot out of the compartment, and the concentration of smoke in the jeep began to rise. The bullet that lodged itself in the glove box had been hot enough to ignite the various insurance and registration documents within.

Huey and Dewey cursed from the back seat. Huey produced a fire extinguisher, seemingly from thin air (he had noticed it under his seat earlier), and sprayed a jet of thick foam down into the glove box, which succeeded in smothering the flame.

“Wait a minute…” Dewey said, reaching down into the foam-filled glove box. His hand came back out gripping a shiny black pistol. Dewey began to juggle the pistol between his two hands. “Ow! It’s hot!”

“No shit,” Huey replied dismissively. “Now be careful with that! Is it loaded?”

“Looks like it,” Dewey responded.

“Louie! We had a gun this whole time? Why didn’t you say anything?!” Huey shouted.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I guess I’m a little distracted!” Louie sang, his tone thick with sarcasm.

“If I had half a mind, I swear-” Huey said through his teeth, raising the fire extinguisher up mockingly, as if he were about to bash Louie’s head in. Simultaneously, a bullet flew through the shattered back window of the jeep and impacted the extinguisher in Huey’s hands. The bottle exploded, coating everything and everyone in the jeep in a thick layer of foam.

“Holy crap! What just happened?” Louie exclaimed, trying to wipe the foam away from the windshield in front of him. He was met with pained noises from Dewey, who had gotten the foam in his eyes, and gagging and spitting noises from Huey, who had gotten a meal’s worth of foam in his mouth because the extinguisher exploded in the middle of his sentence. As Louie continued struggling, trying to clear enough of the windshield to see where he was going, he lost control of the jeep, which began to veer wildly to the right and left. Louie tried as hard as he could to regain control, but he had no visual reference as to their direction of travel.

Eventually the jeep began to spin. Any chance of Louie regaining control went out the window. The three Duck triplets began to scream for their lives. When the jeep had slowed to the point that the tires once again had traction, Louie hit the gas hard, hoping to get moving again. Fortunately, the spinning had forced all the foam to the passenger side of the vehicle, leaving plenty of clear space on the windshield and out the driver’s side window for Louie to see.

The unfortunate thing is what Louie saw outside the driver’s window. Their spinout had left them facing a direction perpendicular to their original direction of travel and, therefore, perpendicular to their pursuers. A massive off-road vehicle, at least twice the size of the one the Duck brothers occupied, was barreling down on them and not slowing. It had a massive bullbar attached to its front, obviously meant for ramming.

Louie’s effort to get moving again were too little, too late. Their jeep was T-boned at high speed, sending them rolling violently through the desert sands. The three ducks bounced around the interior of the tumbling jeep like bingo balls in a mixing machine.

The same three things were coursing through each of the brothers’ minds: adrenaline, terror, and a bitter understanding of how screwed they all were.


End file.
